So much for Interpol's drummer's claim that their new record "falls back towards" their debut. Frontman Paul Banks has dismissed talk of their fourth album sounding exactly like their first, instead promising an "elegant, orchestral quality" and "some really classical stuff".

In Sam Fogarino's November interview with Paste magazine, he described Interpol's "unspoken realisation that you can't let go of your sonic-defining tag". The band, he said, were returning to reverb and Daniel Kessler's "atmospheric" guitar tone. Unlike 2007's Our Love to Admire, which he admitted was "not [their] most cohesive moment", Fogarino implied that Interpol's 2010 release would once again drip with a familiar gloom.

Perhaps not. "I don't even know what [Sam was] talking about," Banks told BBC 6 Music this week. Instead of turning away from Our Love to Admire's elaborate arrangements, "Carlos [Dengler] has gone to total new levels of crazy sophisticated orchestration", Banks said. "I think he brings that elegant, orchestral quality and he's gone even further with that."

"What we've worked on is a real step forward and just very different and very relaxed," he said. "It certainly doesn't sound like anything we've ever done before." Though he admitted "maybe Daniel's [guitar] progressions remind [Sam] of the first record ... the only thing that makes sense about [Sam's] comment to me is in Sam's drums. They sound really mean, and really good."

The New York band's as yet untitled album is still without a release date.